A Design For Living With Art That`s Bigger Than Life

June 22, 1986|By Mary Daniels.

A North Shore couple, young, serious art collectors, bought a very large John Frankenthaler painting with a background of buttery ocher tones. They hung it in their living room, but it didn`t seem quite at home there, so they called upon interior designer Richar for advice.

``A previous designer had given them a rose-and-blue room. The designer didn`t understand what the couple wanted at all. That`s when they heard about me, and I came into the picture,`` says Richar, noted for his original use of color and light.

``Art is extremely important in an environment. It is essential,`` says Richar, who loves working with young art collectors, as he is one himself.

``I`m really into art and I love to get my clients interested in art. I don`t select art for them. I expose them to it and then they make the decision themselves, so the house becomes them.

``Art is so personal. The clients are the ones who have to live with it. I try to get my clients to buy artists that show a good profile and hopefully they will end up with some winners.

``Myself, I gamble a lot. I try to support young upcoming artists from all over the country. So I possibly have on my walls tomorrow`s masters,``

says the 34-year-old designer, born Richar Delphis Johnson in Mattawa, Ont., but who prefers to be known as ``Richar.``

Movie-star handsome, a trace of native French still in his English, Richar attended Algonquin College in Ottawa where he studied design and business.

He launched his Chicago firm, Richar Interiors Inc. in 1983, after three years as assistant designer to Bruce Gregga and Associates here. Previously he had worked eight years for the James Callahan Design Corp. firm in Palm Springs, Calif.

Among commercial interiors he has designed is the Los Angeles office of Sound Video Unlimited, a prominent video producer for the home entertainment market. The interior was displayed on the cover of the October, 1984, Designers West magazine. (The same issue that appeared on a ``Dynasty``

episode on TV in the hands of Alexis Colby.) Better Homes & Gardens and Metropolitan Home magazines also have featured Richar`s work.

In the case of the Frankenthaler that didn`t fit, Richar continues,

``They had bought this piece of art before I came on the scene. They have their definite taste (There`s also a Dubuffet over the fireplace.) and even when it came to designing the room, the choice of fabrics and furnishings, the clients had definite likes and dislikes. That makes the designer`s job a lot easier.

``The John Frankenthaler painting was on that wall (where it is now). They had no objection to moving it anywhere else, but we decided to leave it. Since it was so dominant in the room, we picked out a few subtle colors that were in it,`` to use as his new color scheme in seating, carpeting and accessories.

``I left the walls soft white to make it bright,`` Richar says. ``You do not buy serious art to coordinate with the furniture in a room,`` he admonishes. No ``sofa paintings!`` ``I`m not into decorative art. After a room is done, you don`t buy serious art for color.

``We did the reverse. The client bought a piece of art, and we made the room coordinate with it. When you buy a very important piece, a big piece like this, it was so important in the room that I had to try to make it be part of the room.

``There`s something very unusual about this and I know it can`t be duplicated,`` he says of this assignment, which included living and dining rooms and foyer.

His penchant for unusual color sets challenges for him that would drive other designers back to safe ``eternal beige.`` ``Once I pick them, I have to live up to them,`` he says.

``The rosy cinnamon I chose, because of the uniformity of its use, becomes a neutral background, which plays up the art. It allows the people in the room to be played up as well.``

Though unusual, his colors are never gaudy or trendy.

``I think you`ve got to be careful about trendy colors because when you`re about to spend a great deal of money, you don`t want it to be outdated in a year. You might, however, use a touch or flavor of a color that is trendy,`` he says.

Richar decided to do the living room in a style that is a ``somewhat youthful version of traditional, but still contemporary`` for this couple.

``We wanted a very sophisticated, casual chic environment,`` he says.

His clients` directive was, `` `We want an exciting room. Not just a pair of loveseats in front of the fire,` `` he says.

It is a comparatively small room, though it does not seem to be, despite powerful paintings, strong furnishings and a piano, thanks to the illusion of space he`s created.